Watch out, mobile users -- spammers are upping the SMS ante

Mobile spammers are “upping the SMS spam ante” this year, a new study finds, and while Cleveland thankfully is not among the worst-hit markets, it's particularly prone to bank-related phishing scams.Consulting firm Cloudmark found that mobile spammers are “using a potent combination of older methods” to try to defraud people via text.“One of the techniques is to focus on specific area codes for a better return on investment,” according to the firm. “Honing in on specific area codes is by no means a new technique, but there are some interesting twists this year.”Ohio is hard-hit by unscrupulous spammers targeting bank customers, the study finds.“In Cincinnati, spam targeting area code 513 were tailored to Fifth Third Bank customers,” according to Cloudmark. “Guess where Fifth Third Bank has its headquarters? You got it: Cincinnati. Our number four spot, 216 in Cleveland, was inundated with KeyBank phishing attempts. KeyBank just so happens to be headquartered in Cleveland.”The firm says attackers “even sought Social Security benefits issued via prepaid debit card.” For instance, this year residents of Cleveland's 216 “were met with a second, disparate phishing campaign,” Cloudmark reports. “Attempts were made via SMS to procure the details of their Direct Express MasterCard (with the following message): The Direct Express® card is a prepaid debit card offered to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income check recipients.”

Bottom line: There are always nefarious minds cooking up new phishing scams. Be really careful out there.

Opposite directions

The federal government's Bureau of Economic Analysis today released GDP data for 381 metropolitan areas in 2012, and the Northeast Ohio results are mixed.Real GDP “increased in 305 of the nation's 381 metropolitan areas in 2012, led by growth in durable-goods manufacturing, trade, and financial activities,” according to the BEA.Overall, real GDP in metropolitan areas “increased 2.5 percent in 2012 after increasing 1.7 percent in 2011,” the agency reports.Akron was almost exactly representative of the national average, as GDP there rose 2.5% in 2012 after a 1.6% increase in 2011, according to the data.Cleveland went in the opposite direction, with 2012 GDP growth of 1.5%, which was less than the 3% growth recorded in 2011.

Senate liberals ascendant?

Wall Street executives are “reckoning … with a new reality: a key Senate panel stacked with liberals,” including Sen. Sherrod Brown, who are tired of their act, according to this analysis from BuzzFeed.Former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, who defended large financial institutions in the first years of the Obama administration from lawmakers who would have seen them broken up, on Sunday withdrew his bid to lead the Federal Reserve win over key senators, including Sen. Brown, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, all of who are on the Senate Banking Committee.

“Will this be the exception to the rule or the first of many times that they will put a grenade in front of what the president wants to do?” one Washington, D.C.-based financial services executive tells the website.“If only one of those three are on the Banking Committee, Summers probably gets through committee easily,” adds Tony Fratto, a former Bush Treasury official and partner at Hamilton Place Strategies.Mr. Fratto, whose clients include banks, cautions that Mr. Summers' rejection might not be the sign a unified anti-Wall Street front in the Senate.“I don't think it's an anti big-bank wave that caused this to happen, just the fact that that these three anti-bank people are on the committee,” he says.But as one congressional staffer notes, “I don't think you've ever seen Democrats stop something that Obama wanted to do. … It's somewhat of a milestone. Sherrod Brown got a win.”You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.

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